Those of you who have delicate constitutions and elegant ears may want to leave - we are going to open the box containing the photographic equipment and there may be language.Not every packaging designer wants you to get into the package. Some are jealous of the contents or the aesthetics or the zen or some damned thing and devise ways of excluding you. You don't just walk into Mordor...
I realise that using the phrase fine art photography is a dangerous thing - it seems to be two adjectives chasing a noun. And in many cases unsuccessfully...
The first of October is just over a week away - Thursday morning will dawn before you know it and you need to be prepared for it now. Here's a Camera Electronic checklist to ensure that you will be ready in time:1. Do you have that second camera body? If your first one fails on the evening of the 30th of September, will you have a second one ready to take over? Better call into the shop and purchase another one now and get the battery charged up in time for Thursday. A couple of spare lenses would be a good idea too.2. Is your camera set properly? If you have just been fooling around recently or experimenting with different settings you may lose valuable time on Thursday morning re-configuring it. best do it now and then attach a tag to the camera strap lugs with a ready-to-go code. Flouro colours work best for this.3. Have you remembered the grounding stake and connecting cable?4. No-one likes a card snatcher - when you suddenly need more memory it is really bad...
For the last 7 1/2 years I have been coping with the business of multiplication factors for the focal lengths of lenses in the digital world. Right from the start, we have had equivalents to various things - occasioned by the size of the electronic sensors that were possible in the cameras at the time. Initially quite small, they progressed in size as the silicon chip makers learned to grow ever-larger surfaces.There were a number of stages that received what are now difficult names - difficult in that every one of them needs some sort of explanation and qualification when a customer enquires about it. We can liken the quandary to an alphabet - we all pretty well agree what a "B" looks like and unless you are Russian and spell it backwards or something, we don't have to refer to it as a full-frame B or an APS-C B or a 3/4" B.Every manufacturer would have their product better than the rest, if only in the advertising pamphlets. Thus was born the diagonal measurement of sensor size - based...
Well, you wanted to know what the manufacturers were doing with the packaging...
There's this movie in production about boxing. Not two Irishmen pummelling each other - boxing. Packaging cameras. I can hardly wait for the release.Now, this is going to be different from all the Yo' Tube videos of sad people taking their new camera out of the packaging while the rest of the world burns around them. This is going to be the inside story of the intrigues and murders in the Japanese packaging industry. If you don't believe they have them, consider these facts:1. Japan has a culture of wrapping and packaging. There is a Japanese cultural channel on Foxtel that has video reports from Japan and broadcasts whole shows on wrapping -foreigners watch Japanese retail sellers package different products for sale and ten comment on how it is done in their own country. The Japanese always do it better, and with more style.2. Japanese companies are quite competitive. Just like the feudal families used to be, They may not go round each other's head offices and shower the opposing office workers with arrows at lunchtime but the temptation is...
Those of you who are dog owners and walk your animals in the city streets and parks will recognise the yellow bags in the image. You carry them with you wherever you go and do your civic duty after Fido has done his biological duty...
Polly Adler was right for many reasons...
This column has remarked in the past upon the way that manufacturers name things - and decried the tendency to give similar pieces of equipment long model number and letter combinations that are easily confused. You have no idea what a mess a phone conversation can be when someone messes up the the model number - and frequently it is me that messes it up...
We see many famous and successful professional photographers here in our shop. Award-winners, superstars, iconic ambassadors, and mentors. They are a wonderful experience and do us a great deal of good - not least in the matter of figuring out how much to charge for taking pictures. We don't have an exact number but their general advice is...